If you have the courage to make the leap, experimentation can bring excitement to your life, Martin Hayes tells Ed Power in advance of tbe Masters of Tradition festival

SOME creatures have massive public profiles; elephants, big cats and pandas come to mind.

Thirteen people have died after a massive tornado carved an 80-mile trail of destruction through central Arkansas in the US.

A powerful storm system spawning several tornadoes has torn through the central and southern United States, killing at least 12 people.

TOUR de France cyclists exploit the slipstreams of their competitors in ‘le peloton’.

THOMAS BEWICK, the celebrated engraver, carved in hard woods.

MILLIONS of Christmas travellers were caught in the wintry grip of a massive blizzard yesterday that brought chaos to air, road and train transit across the eastern United States.

A THIRD year student in Limerick’s Mary Immaculate College has been awarded a sought after scholarship to the value of $80,000 (€59,255) to study at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

I TOOK my grandchildren to see Fantastic Mr Fox, the film based on a Roald Dahl story.

Around the world today countries rushed to deal in their own way with swine flu fears.

FOR centuries, many of the owners of estates and large gardens in this country were compulsive and competitive collectors of exotic trees. Many of these collections still survive. I have a passionate interest in trees and for somebody like me, visiting one of these collections for the first time is an exciting event.

Residents today began rebuilding a day after tornadoes killed 12 people in Tennessee in the southern United States, the second wave of violent weather to hit the state in less than a week.

Engineering firm Tomkins beat profits expectations today after overcoming setbacks such as hurricanes and slumping sales of car giants in the United States.

HURRICANE Wilma turned into the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded yesterday, a Category 5 monster packing 175mph wind that forecasters warned was “extremely dangerous”.

Monroe County officials have ordered visitors out of Florida Keys ahead of Hurricane Wilma, the first US evacuations caused by the Category 5 storm.

Three German hospital patients appear to have been infected with rabies through organ transplants and are in critical condition, a medical foundation said today.

HURRICANE Ivan extended its deadly march across the Southern United States yesterday, destroying homes, swamping streets and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas.

Twenty-two people lay dead and hundreds of homes were in ruins today in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.

Hurricane Ivan slammed into the southern coast of the United States today, claiming at least 12 lives and causing widespread damage.

A monster hurricane is approaching the southern United States tonight, threatening to destroy the city of New Orleans and forcing two million people to flee.

Hurricane Ivan grew into the deadliest of storms today, packing winds of 160mph as it headed straight for Jamaica and left a devastated Grenada with 20 dead.

The most powerful hurricane to hit the Caribbean in a decade killed at least 15 people and devastated Grenada, damaging 90% of homes in the ”spice isle” and destroying a 17th-century prison that left criminals on the loose.

A BILLBOARD ad which referred to a rape scene in the 1972 film Deliverance has been found to be in breach of taste and decency advertising codes.

I MUST respond to the comments made by Joe Moore of the Socialist Worker’s Party concerning the Confederate battle flag being flown by Cork supporters at GAA championship matches (Irish Examiner, August 6).